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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-WALLACE-NC · Wallace, NC 3,438 pop · income 18th pct · 21 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Wallace
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wallace on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Somerville · lowest
31,063
Somerville · lowest
31,063 median HH income
15.8% of the leader · rank #1
Astoria · near
49,345
Astoria · near
49,345 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #2
Wallace · this city
49,358
Wallace · this city
49,358 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #3
Fort Madison · near
49,359
Fort Madison · near
49,359 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #4
Williamsport · near
49,363
Williamsport · near
49,363 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #5
Zeeland · near
49,367
Zeeland · near
49,367 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #6
Tashua · highest
197,000
Tashua · highest
197,000 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Wallace on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 3,438.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wallace - the verdict
Nationally, Wallace sits in the 18th percentile for household income and the 10th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
18th
percentile, household income
41st
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
10th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Wallace, NC
North Carolina's Wallace is a small town, with 3,438 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Wallace brings in $49,358 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.1%. Wallace's housing stock carries a median value of $192,800, and the median resident age is 44.3 years. About 14.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 54.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Wallace's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3608.2 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Wallace's yearly average temperature at 62.0°F with 57.2 inches of precipitation per year and 0.7 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in North Carolina run below the national norm: the state registers 94.3 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,161 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $215 across North Carolina, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Wallace's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to housing and income to reported crime to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wallace, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Wallace growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +193 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.7% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 14.6% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wallace?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Rural Hall (3,421 residents, $50,665 income); Windsor (3,417 residents, $38,631 income); Enochville (3,392 residents, $65,328 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Sleepy Eye, MN (3,438 residents); Dennis Port, MA (3,439 residents); West Nyack, NY (3,437 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
PlainCities matches 21 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Wallace?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 91.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Drive alone
91.5%
Work from home
1.1%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,413 workers age 16+.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 62.0°F, with 57.2 inches of precipitation and 0.7 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for North Carolina is 66.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
66.7
Annual precipitation
57.2 in
Mean temperature
62.0°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
How far does income reach against housing in Wallace?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.9×
Home value
$192,800
Household income
$49,358
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Wallace?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3608.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
3608.2
Violent rate
400.9
Property rate
3207.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
F
City profile score · Wallace, NC
30/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living B-
94.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate F
14.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
401 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$49,358
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Wallace profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.1%
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 401 /100k
Household income: 19/100 (F) · $49,358
Bachelor's+ share: 19/100 (F) · 14.6%
Where Wallace sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wallace's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Wallace highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Wallace, NC (this city): home $192,800, crime 3,608/100k
Sleepy Eye, MN : home $138,500, crime 658/100k
Somerville, TN : home $301,400, crime 1,461/100k
West Point, VA : home $256,600, crime 867/100k
Windsor, NC : home $111,400, crime 1,649/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Wallace compare to other US cities?
Here's how Wallace stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income18% higher than other cities
Home value41% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety10% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at North Carolina, Wallace ranks #143 of 195 North Carolina cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Wallace against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to North Carolina only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
North Carolina-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Wallace near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wallace ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wallace only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#474 of 700
32nd percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#348 of 708
51st percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#261 of 746
65th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#544 of 746
27th percentile in North Carolina
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within North Carolina only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
18th percentile nationally for median household income · 10th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wallace's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wallace's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Wallace's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$192,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Wallace's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,418 of 15,516
More affordable than 33% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,179 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.9×, Wallace sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,418 of 15,516 and #8,179 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$49,358Wallace, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wallace, NC median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Wallace, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,438
Median Income
$49,358
Median Home Value
$192,800
Median Age
44.3
Poverty Rate
14.1%
Labor force participation
54.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3608.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
400.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3207.3
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
62.0°F
Annual Precipitation
57.2"
Annual Snowfall
0.7"
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wallace's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,377 residents
2021
3,384 residents
2022
3,417 residents
2023
3,473 residents
2024
3,536 residents
2025
3,570 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
91.5%
Carpool
7.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
1.1%
Based on 1,413 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
North Carolina statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $215
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across North Carolina at $215 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are North Carolina statewide averages, not a meter reading for Wallace. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
North Carolina's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Wallace is $1,161/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to North Carolina statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a North Carolina statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Wallace sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wallace compares to similar-size North Carolina cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.